This Is War - Chapter 34 – Twisted and Jerked
“Just move that aside,” said Cole as he opened the door of his Ferrari for me.
Yes, he had a Ferrari. And no, I didn’t have any idea how the liftman for the Society was able to afford a Ferrari. I figured they paid well, but not that well.
I reached down and pushed a duffel bag off the passenger seat. I hadn’t realized it was open, though. Because as I moved it, a bunch of stuff spilled out - ropes, riding crops, spurs…
“If you don’t mind me asking, why do you have a bag full of BDSM equipment?”
Cole laughed as he slid into the driver's seat. “That’s my rodeo bag, pervert.”
“Oh…” Shit! Is he serious? “Why do you have a rodeo bag?”
“You’ll see.” He winked at me and floored his Ferrari in reverse.
I gulped. This was definitely a mistake. What the hell had I been thinking getting into a car with Cole?! I’d officially lost my mind. “Where are we going? Some sort of weird midnight rodeo?”
“Nope.”
“Then where? I feel like there aren’t many options this late at night. Either you’re going to take me to go get a Frosty at a Wendy’s drive-thru, or you’re going to take me to an abandoned shack and cut me up into little bits.” Oh no! Is that what the ropes are for?
Cole hit the gas and we accelerated up a little hill. It almost felt like we were on a rollercoaster. Only instead of being at a theme park, we were in the middle of a deep dark forest. This thing must have had like a million horsepower. #Horsefacts.
“For the record,” I said, “I’d rather go to Wendy’s than be murdered.”
“Well that’s a shame, because you only made me promise that I wouldn’t get you naked or spit roast you. You never said anything about murder.”
“Seriously, where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.” He turned the wheel and whipped us around a sharp bend in the road.
“What if I don’t like surprises?”
“You’ll like this one. Now sit back and relax. It’ll be about 15 minutes before we get there.”
His tone didn’t leave any room for argument. I was just going to have to trust that he would follow my rules. Hopefully my threat to his testicles would be enough to keep him in line.
I leaned back in the plush racer seat and watched the trees zip by. Then my eyelids started to feel heavy…
“How does that sound?” asked Cole.
“Huh? What?” I mumbled, wiping some drool off my lip. Shit. Did I fall asleep? It had been a long day and I had every right to be super tired, but it still seemed embarrassing to fall asleep 5 minutes into our date. “That sounds great,” I added, pretending like I’d been awake the whole time.
“You sure you heard me? For a second I thought you’d fallen asleep.”
“Me? Ha, no,” I scoffed. “What do you think I am, a little baby?”
“Alright then. Well, look alive. We’re almost there.” Cole turned off the main road and a second later a gate popped out of nowhere.
A guard stepped out of a gatehouse and put his hand up to stop us.
“Uh…is that guard holding a machine gun?” I asked.
“Technically it’s an assault rifle. But yes, he’s armed.”
My eyes got big. “I don’t know that we should be here…”
Cole laughed and blinked his high beams thrice in quick succession. The guard stepped aside and waved us through.
“Seriously, what is this place?” I asked as we drove up a windy path towards a ridiculous mansion. If the Emerald Oasis clubhouse was a castle, this was a freaking palace. “This looks like the kind of place where a bunch of mobsters would meet to bid on nuclear weapons and kidnapped virgins.”
“That’s only on Wednesdays.”
Is he joking? I genuinely couldn’t tell.
We came to a stop under the porte-cochère.
Cole reached over me and opened the glovebox. Inside were two masquerade masks. He put one on and handed me the other.
“So it’s a masquerade party?” I asked.
“Yeah, I told you that.”
Right. When I was sleeping like a baby . A valet opened our doors. Cole tossed him his keys and then slipped him a hefty wad of cash. I couldn’t hear what Cole whispered to him, but I assumed he was telling him that he’d kill him if he dented his Ferrari.
Another armed guard stopped us at the front door. “Names?”
“Cole and Raven,” said Cole.
The guard started flipping through a clipboard.
“You won’t find our names on your list,” added Cole.
“Then I suggest you turn your ass around. If you’re lucky, I’ll forget I ever saw you.”
“Actually, I have a standing invitation from Kat.”
The guard narrowed his eyes and adjusted his gun. “You really want me to call her?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. But if it turns out that you shouldn’t be here…”
“Yeah, yeah. You’ll throw me out on my ass. Just call her.”
“It’s your funeral,” muttered the guard. He turned away and said something into a mic clipped to his collar.
I wanted to ask who Kat was, but I was worried that any sudden movements would get me shot by Meathead McGee. That was the guard’s name, I assumed. MM for short.
MM stared us down for a good five minutes until the door opened. A woman in a black leather catsuit and a cat-eared mask slid out.
Well…that’s definitely Kat. She looked familiar, but with the mask covering half her face I couldn’t quite place her. Had she been on one of the teams today? Or had I seen her at Club Onyx? I wasn’t sure.
“Who…” she started. But then her face lit up. “Cole?! Is that you?”
“Good to see you too,” he said.
She pulled him into a big hug. It lasted a bit too long for my liking. Not that I was feeling threatened by her or anything.
Okay, fine. I was feeling very threatened.
Because not only were her breasts spilling out of her inappropriately unzipped catsuit, but I was pretty sure she also owned this palace.
For a second I thought that she was Cole’s sugar momma, but that wouldn’t really make sense with how excited she was to see him.
If he had been her house boy, he would have been locked up in this palace and forced to wear shiny gold hot pants while hand-feeding her grapes.
Not that that was what Nigel did with Tanner.
Because Tanner was straight. And even though Nigel did some odd things, I certainly hadn’t imagined him saying he wanted to fuck me.
Nigel was as straight as an arrow. I think .
It’s possible it was more like…straight as a squash.
So like slightly curved. And now I was thinking about penises. Stupid orgasm and perverted brain!
“Who’s this?” she asked when their embrace finally ended.
“This,” began Cole. He put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me into his side. “This is my girlfriend. Raven. Raven, this is Kat.”
“Pleasure to…” Wait…WHAT?! Did he just say I was his girlfriend?!
“The pleasure is all mine,” said Kat. “If you’ve been able to get Cole to settle down, then you must be truly special.”
“Yup,” was all I could think to say. I was still caught up on the whole girlfriend thing.
Was that what he’d been discussing with me while I was asleep in his car?
More importantly, if I had agreed to be his girlfriend, had I also agreed to a bunch of other crazy stuff?
Damn it! Cole had an easy enough time tricking me into things when I was awake.
I could only imagine what he’d tricked me into while I was asleep!
Kat led us inside. The foyer was about ten times the size of my entire apartment.
And it contained exactly twelve more masked partygoers than my entire apartment.
Because, you know…my apartment was currently empty.
Unless Homeless Rutherford had snuck into my apartment tonight and thrown a masquerade ball.
The music got louder as Kat took us down a huge hallway lined with framed 8-foot-tall photos of cats. The first few were adorable, but then it just got kind of weird. No one needed that many pictures of cats.
The hallway opened up into a grand ballroom, complete with a DJ, a fully stocked bar, and tons of dancing guests.
“What will you be drinking tonight?” asked Kat as we approached the bar.
“Nothing for me,” said Cole. “I’m driving.”
“Nonsense,” said Kat. She ran around behind the bar and then reappeared a second later with two identical room keys. Each was attached to a keychain with a little tag that said 236. She handed us each a key.
Cole pocketed his and I slipped mine into my clutch. Not that I’d be using it. I’d agreed to a date - not a sleepover.
“Well I guess that fixes that,” said Cole. “I’ll drink whatever Raven’s drinking.” He turned to me expectantly.
“Um…” I always hated ordering drinks. People were always so judgy about it. I mean, obviously I wanted something delicious and fruity. This party seemed fancy though, which meant there was likely an easy out. “Do you have a signature drink?”
“Sure do.” Kat tapped the bar to get the bartender’s attention. “Two Slippery Meows, please.”
She got us our drinks and then returned to her hostess duties.
“What’s up with that lady and cats?” I asked the second she was out of earshot.
Cole laughed. “Yeah, she’s always had a thing for them.”
Always? I took a long sip of my Slippery Meow. Other than flakes of 24-carat gold, I couldn’t tell what was in it. But it wasn’t half bad. Kind of bubbly but still smooth. “Is her name really Kat?”
“Katerina.”
“And you guys go way back, huh?”
“We grew up down the street from each other.”
“So she was your childhood sweetheart?”
Cole looked away. “Not quite.”
“You’ve gotta give me more details than that. I mean, as your girlfriend I think I have the right to know.”
He laughed. “If you must know, I had a huge crush on her when we were young. But that’s done and dusted. She missed her chance.”
“What happened? She didn’t want to be spit roasted by you and your buddies? Shocker.”
“Something like that.”
“Wait, for real?” What a pervert! “I need the entire story immediately.”
“Do you promise to never breathe a word of this to anyone?”
“Sure.”